The present invention relates generally to an improved animal stabilizer system, and more particularly, to an animal restraint system which is designed to controllably stabilize a bull for castration. The stabilizer system is designed primarily for castrating bulls, and provides a solid means for temporarily stabilizing a bull undergoing castration or one or more veterinary procedures. The cattle stabilizer system of the present invention is particularly adapted to temporarily restrain a 200-900 pound bull undergoing the castration process wherein a single person must handle the bull in order to complete the castration process. The cattle stabilizer is particularly well adapted for use with animals having a generally rowdy or uncontrollable disposition. In certain other applications, the bull or cow may be restrained for other veterinary procedures such as vaccination, inoculation and artificial insemination.
In the past, various restraint means including cages, pens and the like have been employed for assisting veterinarians while undertaking procedures with animals. It has been found that certain of these restrains are less gentle upon animals and their ability to recall may render the animals difficult to effectively restrain upon subsequent or repeat occasions. It is, of course, always important to provide a means of protecting the individual attending the animal, and it is also equally important to avoid injuring or wounding the animal or otherwise inflicting damage to their bodies, including their bones, flesh, organs including skin, and fur.
Past restraint devices are designed for use by a number of individuals who need to work on a bull. Unfortunately, there are not always a number of individuals to be gathered to work on a bull for veterinary reasons or for other reasons. Moreover, a disabled individual has no chance of performing any necessary medical treatment on a 200-900 pound bull without some easy restraint device which will secure the bull without movement. There are also other reasons for the need to provide a stabilizer for animals. Labor costs of other workers and the convenience of setting up help to work on cattle can be inconvenient, especially these days with farms located so far apart. A prior art method of castrating a calf or a bull is to have one individual hold the front of the bull and the other individuals hold the tail by twisting or bending which often breaks the tail during the bull's movement. Dehorning is also difficult because the tail is often unstabilized and the shoulders are not pushed to the front of the chute which causes the animal to go forward or in reverse and kick.
Accordingly, there is a need for an animal restraint device which will allow one individual to restrain an animal for castration without the assistance of any other individuals. In the past, there have been many chutes and animal restraint devices used on cattle for holding them during a veterinary procedure. A typical cow anti-kick apparatus is disclosed in the patent to Konitzer 5,014,648. The apparatus is used for mounting on the hips of a cow and for effectively discouraging a cow from kicking by holding the root of the tail in an upwardly disposed attitude. The tail is held by a tail holding means which is mounted to a clamping means which grips the hips of the cow. Unfortunately, the anti-kick apparatus disclosed by Konitzer does not fully support the cow off the ground which is necessary for castration procedures. In addition, the apparatus is used for securing the hips which is not a significant part of the necessary stabilizing procedure used during the castration process. Other various prior art procedures use a number of winch and pulley designs in order to control gates which are used to brace a cow during some sort of veterinary procedures. These devices also fail to secure the animal in a lifted position in order for one individual to castrate an animal.
Perhaps the most useful restraint device is disclosed in the patent to Knoss 5,035,204. Knoss discloses a head restraint device attached to a livestock squeeze chute. Knoss teaches the use of an elongated beam mounted on brackets on the upper side rails of the squeeze chute. The elongated beam has two pulleys which control a cable fed from a winch to the animal. Unfortunately, the beam shown in Knoss extends outside the chute and the winch is also mounted at the front end of the chute which limits use of the system.